Romania, Ukraine advance talks on EU-funded joint drone production

BUCHAREST, April 1 (Reuters) – Ukrainian drone manufacturers are meeting Romanian defence ministry and army officials in the capital Bucharest this week to discuss potential joint production under a new European Union rearmament funding mechanism, the ministry said in a statement.

Romania, an EU and NATO state, shares a 650-km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine and has had drones breach its airspace and fragments fall onto its territory repeatedly since Russia began attacking Kyiv’s ports located across the Danube from Romania.

The EU has allotted Romania 16.6 billion euros ($19.2 billion) under its new rearmament initiative SAFE, which will begin later this year, and Defence Minister Radu Miruta said the country wanted to spend 200 million euros for joint drone production.

“We are currently discussing how to form a team to deal exclusively with this project, with the contract signing deadline being the end of May,” Miruta said in a statement late on Tuesday after meeting Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Strategic Industries Sergiy Boyev.

Fifteen Ukrainian companies will continue discussing the project in Bucharest in the coming days, he added.

Earlier this month, Romanian and Ukrainian presidents signed a statement of intent to produce Ukrainian defence systems including drones in Romania.

($1 = 0.8630 euros)

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)